For many of us ancient types, our first exposure to "real rock music criticism" (oh, how it pains me to type those words) was in Rolling Stone, the living embodiment of our nascent rock culture. Yeesh. Read those ancient scrolls now, desert people, and repent. As my son Ben pointed out, "Isn't it funny that the bands they trashed way back then are now in their Top Ten Greatest Rock Bands of All Time ?" Not that they were wrong, neccessarily, but time and marketing have reversed some of the TKO's scored (Led Zep may be slow, but once they gained traction they obliterated anyone in their path to the Hall of Fame). There are some great attempts at expanding the concept of "review" -- Lester Bangs, John Mendelsohn, Greil Marcus, Lenny Kaye and J.R. Young, for instance, but read these collections with a generous soul -- they were sincere and naive, but trying something different.
I'm reminded of that famous quote attributed to Frank Zappa. "Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read". I did enjoy Rolling Stone, however, in the 70s and early 80s. Especially when Hunter S. Thompson was in there.
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